Completesports.com’s live blogging of the AFCON 2025 Group C Matchday 2 game between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia at the Fez Stadium in Fes, Morocco.
By James Agberebi, at Complexe Sportif de Fez
Nigeria Vs Tunisia Live Blogging – AFCON 2025 Group C Matchday 2
Nnamdi Ezekute
Nnamdi Ezekute, a sports reporting expert, has risen through the ranks at Complete Communications Limited (CCL) famed for publications like Complete Sports.
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64 Comments
Onyeka playing in right centre midfield… Will he be able to deliver good crosses or pick out clever passes from there?
Indeed, Proudly9ja.
Total domination.
We are playing dem the way DRC played us. Tunisia no fit drink water drop cup.
We could have been up 3 nil by half time, with a little good fortune. The football has been delightful to watch. We just need that cutting edge in front of goal.
Goal for 9ja. Omhen scores. Total dominance by 9ja
Pls drop the link for the match. Am missing out badly
9ja has been totally fantastic. Thanks Chelle fir an amazing game project like u always say in ur match conference. U gave d Tunisians a dalse hope of u defending by u had a game plan to attack dem with unrelenting pressure. Complete dominance by SE.
O boy naija boys surprise me percent, total DOMINANCE of football. All the boys are top of their game
Total dominant indeed, how do u explain 201 to 52 passes by 37th minutes if the game if not total dominant? I’m seeing Barca in SE Jersey so far in the first half, na make dem retain the momentum to the end remain now.
Chelle, please ask ur guys to focus and communicate on and off d ball. The boys have been fantastic. Tunisia only started playing after like 35 mins. Same Tunisia team dat drew with almighty Brazil has been turned into molue bus.
The fear of Osimhen is keeping them from coming out full force. And Akor is also disturbing the heck out of them. But they must come out in the 2nd half. Then we can hit them on the counter.
why was Osimhen given a yellow card?
Complete Dominance by the Super Eagles so far. Nigeria should be 3 goals up by half time. At last Osimhen gets a goal that his efforts more than deserve!
I think Chelle got his formation right by getting Onyeka in to partner Ndidi in a double pivot in midfield and that has suffocated the Tunisian midfielders from progressing as they usually do.
Hopefully Nigeria will get one or more goals from the 2nd half. Go Super Eagles!
No, Onyeka is playing a bit higher up in right centre midfield.
It is essentially the same formation Chelle used in the last game.
The useless Ndidi has scored! Goooooaaaaal!
Kel, Ndidi has done it o! Finally. 🙂
Finally!
After 70 caps, well done to him. I know his disciples no go allow us drink water drop cup today, but our criticisms pushed him and did the magic
Ndidi scores finally. Wotowoto in d making. Una remember falcons vs Zambia, na d repeat go happen today
All Those who are saying Ndidi should have been dropped oyaaa show wuna mUgu self.
Onyinye Wilfred Ndidi the rightful Captain of Super Eagles even before Ekong and Musa..
Ndidi is still relevant to this team in the here and now.
Perhaps Ndidi is not so useless after all?
Useless ke looool the best Midfielder Nigeria have today. Oga Double Engine. Those saying he is useless do not know ball
Hahahaha….your best midfielder scores his first goal in over 70 caps, nearly a decade after his debut, and then goes to the other end to do what he knows how to do best…….give needless freekicks leading to goals away.
The man had gassed out as early as the 70th minute already
Best Midfielder indeed…….LMAOooo
second goal Ndidi
Che che che Eric Chelle ooo. Ndidi no fit score bla bla bla. Ndidi is burnt out. Abegs lets aporeciate these boys, they keep making us proud.
Now, we have to calm down, keep our heads. Do not allow them back into the game.
All this pipo wey dey yab Ndidi, I just dey look dem.
Dem go explain taya!
Nwabali is crazy to be honest. He acts like a person dats on kaikai sometimes. Why still tackle dat guy knowing the ref had already blown his whistle against Semi fir his tackle on d Tunisian. We need to be smarter
Lookman makes it 3 for 9ja. Wotowoto confirm
3goals
LOOKBOY ON THR BEAT!
Eric Chelle hasn’t won back to back games. Abeg Chelle u be oga jare. Underestimate SE at ur own peril. My only worry now is dat other teams and pundits will now label 9ja as favorite which might work against dem like Eguavoen’s team. Pipo 4get dat Eguavoen’s team outplayed Tunisia until Iwobi was given a red card and we even almost equalized with Sadiq’s kick dat almost creep in. Osimhen was also injured in dat tournament and we had sadiq and awoniyi in attack but still dominated dem. Tunisia no reach wia 9ja dey and i personally will neva ger apprehension for a team like Tunisia even if dem beat Argentina and Brazil combined for common friendly.
Hahahahaha….But you were practically pissing in your pants, begging Chelle not to change his strategy b4 facing Tunisia…..LMAOoooo
Thank God the man rather chose to listen to the voice of reason, listen to common tactical sense, and listen to the skillset he has at his disposal, rather than the obstinacy that has made him fail flawlessly multiple times in the past.
Ladies and gentlemen, behold Chelle doing the needful to save his career.
Now that he has thrown his fake diamond into the dustbin for a more functional strategy, as some of us have been advocating, he has finally been able to defeat a team ranked above 90th position in FIFA rankings for the 1st time since he was appointed.
Thank goodness he didn’t handle Tunisia with kid gloves like some of you were deluding yourselves around with earlier on
Drey my broda, dat team would still have defeated diz Tunisian team to be honest. Do u really think diz Tunisian team is good? Be honest on a good day, can diz team stand a 9ja team dat has been incentivized properly (coaches wages paid on a timely basis, players welfare addressed properly, etc). I still stick by what i said earlier dat our team is better than the Tunisian team any day any time. Lets celebrate the victory.
Tunisia has never been a team Nigeria should take with kid gloves.
Before today’s game, we had faced them 21 times, won 5, drawn 10 and lost 6, meaning we have only won 24% of the times we’ve met them. That is not even an average score. That is capital F anywhere in the world.
So its not a matter of who is better, its a matter of who has the better game plan. A covid ravaged Tunisian team C coached by the 2nd assistant coach booted us out of 2022 AFCON with our full team and our “Coach of the group stages” NFF Techincal Director coach.
Were they better than us then…?? NO
Better does not win tournament football, otherwise we should be having way more than the 3 AFCON trophies we currently have.
So to think the same rusted diamond that barely works against teams ranked 40 places below Tunisia would have worked now is nothing but laughable optimism.
I am not a coach, but this was my reply to Larry a few days ago
“……Chelle if he is sensible, can deploy Iwobi (once again, closer to our opponents box than ours) and Ndidi, but he should be intelligent enough to deploy an extra DM who has a high work rate, can graft, mark and win balls efficiently to support them both while making sure Ndidi is not guaranteed 90 mins. We are playing against a Tunisian team that can run, so if I were to be an intelligent coach he would know he has to cut supplies from their midfield as often and the opportunity presents itself…….”
Did he do so or not.
You wanted him to play Iwobi, Lookman, and Chukwueze together with this one-and-a-half-legged Ndidi vs Tunisia…..??? So only Ndidi would have been the natural marker and ball winner in the line up….?? LMAOOooo
Once again, thank God Chelle listened to the voice of reason and didnt overduled himself about this Tunisian team.
But once again, it is glaring that as much as it seems like Chelle is doing well, it is also becoming more glaring by the day that he and his decisions are the biggest clog in the progress of this team.
And of course, celebrating the win is in order.
At least it didn’t end in a draw this time as Chelle nearly snatched a draw from the jaws of victory with his management of the game from the 70th minute.
Agreed with ur summation regarding some glaring flaws especially the removal of Onyeka and Akor for Ejuke and Simon, that was not needed as those changes placed the team under some pressure. I hope what happened to Eguavoen’s team doesn’t happen to this team, where they will win all group games and a small team might just defeat dem by a lone goal. But all in all i personally think he is improving the team. He is analyzing matches and selecting the right players to execute his game plan but sometimes his substitutions let him and the team down. But u have to admit dat he is not as tactically and technically deficient as you’ve painted him to be. Does he have flaws, Yes, who doesn’t. The gr8 Pep, Zidane, Ancellotti etc make mistakes and poor judgment too in some games. The guy wants to win all games like any coach but sometimes ur opposition is better than u on d day. Recall, against DRC, Osimhen’s injury was a big blow to d team and completely screwed his plans, osimhen’s absence in any team will mek d team look very ordinary imho. Anyway, i get ur point tho. Am really excited to see him use some fringe players like Nnadi, Onyedika, Onyeka, Akinsanmiro, Ryan, (we need to cap tie him asap in dis tournament), Usman, etc in our next game. Do u think if diz Tunisia team plays diz way against Tanzania especially d 1st half, they will beat Tanzania? Osayi Samuel should be very careful ooo, this same handball tin happened during d playoffs if am not mistaken but thankfully the ref said no penalty then, he really needs to be smart wen challenging for a header.
Go and hide yourself, you narcissist! Where is Ghana placed,? and Garbon @78 placed ranking that Chelle’ s team had beaten before taking Tunisia ranked 41st to the cleaners? Yet you still claim this is the first time Chelle is beating a team ranked above 90 in fifa ranking.
Which your dirty advice did Chelle take for this match? You that predicted that Tunisia will beat SE and that Eagles will only win 2 matches in the group games and called Chelle a Tuareg and herdsmen, just because he is half Malian?
You should hide yourself, or at the minimum apologise to Chelle and the Super Eagles team before shamelessly opening your dirty dentures and typing your meaningless and misleading epistles!
I don talk am se Nwabali na kaikai him dey on. Why are u in a hurry to kick d ball to Osimhen, calm d ball down and manage d game well. Tunisia finally scores 1, its 3:1
Chelle why na, wetin mek u take Onyeka out for Ejuke?
Tunisia has been given a penalty
That was not a penalty. Not in a million years.
Na the thing wey dey tire me for African football be dat. Outrageous.
Nigeria 3 TUNISIA 1 REF 1
Man of the match is the ref, for miraculously gifting Tunisia a penalty they had no business getting.
You blamed the ref. Or those fool at the VAR room? We know once they asked the center ref. To go view that monitor, his original decision is definitely gonna change. Still a good game from the boys.
When the ball touches a player hand inside the 18 yard box especially when your hand is extended away from the body .they give penalties. Weather It is delibarate or not…It really is just nonsense ……the advent of VAR made it worse.
That was never a penalty! Thus is referee aided the Tunisian side. I don’t know why Chelle replaced Onyeka and Akor in particular who was tormenting the Tunisians!
Anyway, the worst that can happen now is a draw, which won’t be a bad result.
9ja wins. We have done it. We r thru to d finals. Chelle u fall my hand small sha by d changes u made. There was no point removing Akor and Onyeka in dis game but me personally still blif u die. U have defeated teams few blif u could defeat with ur technical deficiencies. The scoreline flatters Tunisia to be honest, d margin should have been up to 7 for 9ja but we move.
Quarter finals
Thoroughly entralling match. I always enjoy Nigeria Vs Tunisia regardless of the scoreline as both teams really get into it. Thanks to both teams for a match that kept fans at the edge of our seat til the end!
This was not a game for Ejuke. In fact, that sub of Ejuke and imon for Akor and Onyeka put us under pressure.
Ndidi scored but as usual started running with clay foot and escorting opponents to the 18 yards box towards the end of the game. Chelle should know Ndidi is not a 90 minutes player. But over all he did up in a fairly good shift today.
Chai, the ref try ooo. E no easy!
You think it’s easy to just manufacture a penalty from thin air?
The ref tried soooo hard to get Tunisia back in the game, but he failed woefully. Tunisia lost the game in the end.
Drey you should cut off your arms as promised. Have you forgotten. I think you need to come back to yourself and let go of the pain of rohr sack.
Stopping wishing eagles bad luck.
Chelle don beat Tunisia now. Wetin you go say again
Hahahahaha…..this one is back after shamefully disappearing since DRC booted him and his delusion out of the World Cup…….LMAOooo.
Everything is always about Rohr to you…….LMAOoo….that is how myopic and fickle you are as a person. Chelle is a messiah whose failures and short comings shouldnt be mentioned…..LMAOooo.
It is you who needs to let go of your affinity for mediocrity. At least Rohr was sacked for no reason other than the fact that “he would likely win the AFCON and become difficult to sack.” Already there are a plethora of reasons why this your messiah, who is a specialist in failure, should be given the boot as early as 1 month from now.
So once again, let go of your affinity for mediocrity and celebration of one-night-stands.
And o yes, I would have loved to cut off my left arm and parcel it to Chelle tonight, but unfortunately, Tunisia is ranked lower than Nigeria.
So tone down your elation, the day he finally defeats a team ranked higher than Nigeria, I will gladly hand him my left hand.
I am not one to gloat over group stage results of any Nigerian team, male, female, U17 or Senior….anyone who has followed me over the years knows so. Tournaments start during the knockout stages. So if I were you, I would be cautious about how much I celebrate this coach, who apparently cannot manage football games for the full 90 mins. 10 more minutes and we probably would have ended the game in a draw.
No wonder Cotedivoire came back from 1 man and a goal down in the first half to boot him out of the last AFCON after 120 minutes.
Hahaha. Dr drey. Same way you disappeared at the last Afcon on our way to the final but you reappeared after we lost the final. Hahahaha.
Nevertheless you’re a good analyst. It’s just that you’re rohr brother. Hahahaha
I never disappeared at the last Afcon….the records are there for all to see.
Like I said before, be it SE, Falcons, FE, GE or Flamingoes, I don’t bat much of an eyelid about group stage performances…..as far as I am concerned every tournament begins at the knockout stages.
I’ve watched enough tournaments to know that you can be the team of the group stage yet crash out in the R16 like Egauvoen’s team. And you can also be a rag tag team during the group stage and be so poor your FA will book your flight home after your 3rd group game but go all the way to the trophy like Keshi’s team.
Go back and check the threads of the knockout stage of the last AFCON before claiming Dr.Drey disappeared at the last AFCON.
Ten thousand antagonists aren’t gonna be enough to make me “disappear” unless I’ve resolved to.
Anyone who doesn’t like the fact that I always speak the truth, even if it means including Rohr’s name (the name that still peppers their conscience till 2099) should skip Dr.Drey’s comment anytime they are reading comments on CSN.
Pipo abeg wetin Nwabali det try catch fir d 1st goal lol, na odele (bird) him dey try catch? D guy sometimes na comedian ooo. But a victory well deserved for 9ja. Chelle great job, some changes you made today were unwarranted (onyeka and Akor for Ejuke and Simon). But u did good overall. Great game by d team overall. Lookman na baller u be joor, na only u dey match Osimhen energy (love ur quiet aggression). Iwobi was good (just curb a few misplaced passes and u r golden bro), Ndidi guy u tap leather today (kept it simple and covered ur defense). Onyeka, all out energy (made d Tunisians look very ordinary). Great team win. We just need to learn how to manage matches better.
This is how to make objectives analysis.
Not like drey who condemn everything.
Mention the good part and bad part and point the way forward.
Not drey who wants Nigeria to fail so that he can ask nff to bring rohr back.
He said Nigeria can’t beat a team high in rating than us. We did that and he is saying another thing now.
Thank you Chelle for the foresight to bring onyeka in for this match.
Thank you for the high press.
We should have been about five goals up before second half.
But Chelle must learn to manage the second with the right substitution. The team always tire out. The right substitution can help out.
Drey that’s how to give a good analysis.
Our sin is because we beat Benin 4-0 . Drey is still angry about that.
You want me to speak from both sides of my mouth like your idols do, so you can feel good about yourself right…?
I’m sorry to let you know you have failed.
Objectivity mummy foot.
If there is anything false in anything I say kindly point it out.
Is Tunisia currently ranked above Nigeria….?? NO
Has Chelle b4 yesterday defeated any team ranked close to or above us since taking over…..?? NO
Has Chelle been winning convincingly even against minnows….??? NO
Save for the fluke 4-0 win against benin when CAF fraudulently gave us the privilege to know how many goals we need to score to usurp our playoffs contenders, which the players duly obliged to….has it not been 1-1, 1-0 or 2-1 victories Chelle has been scraping off teams ranked below 100 on the FIFA ladder…..LMAOooo
It has taken the man who you pay $50000 every month sixteen matches to finally scrape a win vs a team ranked above 90 in FIFA rankings, not even a team ranked higher than us, and you feel so fulfilled already…..LMAOoo. I see why you desperately need people to speak from both sides of their mouth to validate your celebration of mediocrity.
I should Praise Chelle for finally making use of his brain…..only to reset it to default in the 2nd half as he usually does in almost every match he has managed…..??? You must be joking. Go and audition for a performance at AY Live.
So what fake objectivity do you want me to feed you with to make you happy about the mediocrity you desperately wish to celebrate…..??
Dr.Drey wants Nigeria to fail…. LMAOoo….as if Nigeria has already not been set up to fail by retaining this coaching intern leading this team at the moment. A coach who can neither read games, nor make the right substitutions even from a winning position…..LMAOooo
At least, just as in the world cup where he failed flawlessly, when he fails again at this AFCON like he did with Mali, the scales will fall of the eyes of fake patriots and sycophants like you and then y’all will at least have some sense and get rid of everything that is hindering our progress…..including this touareg who needs instructions from lay men like us as regards who and what formations best suits the players in his team.
Hello, you beat Benin 4-0 yet you were flawlessly bundled out of the world cup for the 2nd consecutive time……LMAoooo…even after CAF did you many favours….. LMAOooo. Did you fail eventually or not….???
Someone warns you not to play with fire, you go ahead, play with fire and get burnt and then claim the person wished you get burnt….. LMAOoo. Who the hell do you think you are deceiving if not yourself…?
If you had any shame, missing out of the WC back to back with this generation of players should make you sober and think twice before blurting out some of the comments you make.
Just the result I anticipated, now Chelle shd play entire different 11 against Uganda and preserve his first team players energy, dnt do like Peseiro that played less than 16 players out of entire 25 or so that went to last AFCON, fresh things up and with this same tactics and discipline, our bench shd be able to get a favorable result against Uganda.
This Nigerian team doesn’t have what it takes to win an afcon,we lack the composure and staying power plus a Coach who can’t read game situations cos why would you sub off your best box to box midfielder and support striker who excels in exerting pressure on opposition defence for two wingers when the pressure is on when you have adequate midfield options on the bench to pick from. only knows what we don’t know
he got lucky today and may not be so next time against top opposition.
and that same penalty incident was similar to the one in the SA vs Egypt match so inconsistent officiating from CAF.
Hehehehehe…you better not tow the path you are trying to tow, otherwise they will say you too have not gotten over the sack of Rohr……..LMAOooo.
That path is not for the fainthearted.
I never believed we would come to the point where our own coach would be the one sabotaging our joy. This is not the first, second, third, nor even fourth time this Touareg will sabotage the team with bizarre substitutions. 10 more minutes and it would have been 3-3……LMAOoooo
What about if it would have been 4-2 with ten minutes. We always have the capability to score too.
I agree with you that Chelle was wrong with substitution but that’s football. Coaches do that. He should learn from it.
But that doesn’t mean you should not praise for the good he does.
I think Chelle ditched his usual 2 man midfield and started with Onyeka, with lookman playing more of a CAM. Then switched to his normal formation with the introduction of Ejuke and Moses, hence the reason our midfield opened up. Also, I’m not a fan of coaches that preplan their subs, because the person marked to be substituted may end up playing well. That’s what happened today, start with Akor and change him in the 2nd half. Why not just choose ur best 11 and then make changes based on the game. It’s not only today, Chelle always preplan his sub – X plays for 60 mins then Y plays for 30.
Good point!
Same way you people said last Afcon and even in 2013.
It’s not rocket science.
Was Osayi’s arm in a natural position when the ball hit it? The answer is a big yes! Osayi was not even looking at the ball. That’s never ever a penalty. The ref dropped a clanger with that one. Ridiculous rubbish.
BTW, Ndidi is owing Kanu.
His goal celebration is a carbon copy of Kanu’s celebration after scoring the golden goal at the Atlanta Olympics semifinal against Brazil. The goal that landed Naija in the final on our way to Africa”s first soccer gold.
Ndidi has to pay Kanu royalties for that celebration.
So Ndidi, how do you want to pay? Cash or transfer?
Natural position……?? LMAOooo. So when you stand upright or jump up, both of your arms stretch out forward like a Boy Scout giving the bicycle salute…..LMAooo
Oga pompei relax, it was a penalty. No escaping such in this era of VAR.
Football doesn’t care if you were looking at the ball when you handled it or not, nor does it care if you did so intentionally or not. Osayi has always been guilty of swinging his arms carelessly and had his cup filled last night.